With Rokomari at the wheel, online book businesses drive ahead

It was April 2013. A 15-year-old Miraz from Bagerhat had just finished his SSC exam.

Miraz was a regular Facebook user who engaged in several bookworm groups on the social media platform. The plethora of book-related posts in those groups, consequently, broadened Miraz's knowledge and encouraged him to explore new genres.

But most of the titles he came across were not available in his hometown nor even in the divisional city of Khulna. By then, local bookshops had already stepped into their twilight years. 

Names like Nilkhet and Banglabazar – the so-called book havens for bibliophiles – would often pop up in the groups. But it was not possible for Miraz to come all the way to Dhaka to collect books in person.

So, the books Miraz craved would remain out of his reach for the unforeseeable future.

But a wall advertisement – right at the centre of Bagerhat town – caught Miraz's attention one day. It was Rokomari, an online bookshop which promised to bring any book to the doorsteps of its customers, no matter where they lived across Bangladesh.

And just like that, Miraz found a permanent solution to the jaded lack of access to books from the comfort of his home. In fact, Rokomari had been in operation since 2012. And once it began countrywide promotional campaigns in the following year, more and more people like Miraz came to know about it.

Fast forward to 2023. 

Rokomari is no longer alone, there are now over 100 online bookshops in the country.

It is widely believed that online bookshops have already surpassed their offline counterparts. Except for the month-long Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela, books in Bangladesh are mostly sold online nowadays.

The Business Standard recently reached out to the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) as well as the country's leading bookshops to understand the online book business' current state of affairs.

As it stands, Rokomari still remains dominant with the lion's share of the market, while some other online bookshops are making strides. This is primarily due to the pandemic-induced boost injected into the online business. The impact had been profound. 

Online book sales have particularly increased manifold following the coronavirus pandemic. "Previously not many people used to buy books online. Book lovers have this tendency of touching a book and smelling it before deciding to buy it. But the lockdown meant being physically present at bookshops was no longer possible. 

Photo: Collected

That is when they shifted online, and online book sales haven't dropped ever since,'' said Prothoma's Online In-Charge Rassel Raihan.

However, industry insiders believe the appeal of physical bookshops will remain intact for the foreseeable future. 

The burgeoning state of affairs 

As there is hardly any information publicly available regarding the online book business in Bangladesh. We contacted the e-CAB to obtain some key figures. According to the association's Executive Director Jahangir Alam Shovon, the online bookshops sell books worth Tk170-180 crore annually, with a 75% market share belonging to Rokomari.

Overall, there are around 120 online bookshops, including around 10 major marketplaces, 70 Facebook-based bookshops and 40 websites of different publishing houses.

Every day nearly 6,000 orders are processed through these bookshops with every order consisting of three books on average. In total, 18,000 copies of books are delivered every day through all the bookshops.

This accounts for 1% of the country's total e-commerce delivery. However, in terms of currency figures, it is worth only 0.5%. This is because the average basket value of other e-commerce is double the basket value of book-centric e-commerces. Currently, the average basket value of every bookshop order is worth Tk800-850.

Shovon further added that online bookshops recently sent an application for a specific policy for all book shops since there have been a number of issues regarding market-manipulating discount rates and inconsistent delivery charges. 

"e-CAB has so far held two meetings in this regard, and we are preparing a policy at the moment. Once done, every bookshop will have to sell books at the same discount rate, while the problems regarding the delivery charge will also be sorted out," said Shovon. 

How Rokomari maintains its reign 

Right now, Rokomari has more than 20 lakh registered users, and every year it sells nearly 30 lakh copies of books, according to Rokomari's Head of Brand Communication and Inbound Marketing Mahmudul Hasan Sadi. 

Also, it has more than two lakh books enlisted on its site and app. But other than that, users can name any book published from anywhere in the world, and Rokomari will try to collect the book and deliver it at the earliest.

Rokomari also delivers Bangladeshi-published books all over the world.

In the Bangladeshi context, it is not easy to venture into uncharted territory and hold onto the leading position for an extended period. But Rokomari, 12th year into its journey, has not only retained its top position but also made it clear that it is not going anywhere.

Photo: Collected

Sadi believes it has been made possible owing to the company's ever-inventive nature. Instead of launching something unprecedented and then getting carried away with the complacency that there is nothing else to achieve, Rokomari is always trying to experiment with new things.

"Communication is very important, so we never compromised on this aspect. We are always eager to interact with our customers, and give them new experiences," said Sadi.

To that end, Rokomari sometimes organises competitions like book reviews or memes. And also award the winners with attractive gifts. 

But one thing that has truly stood out lately is its bestseller award. Literary awards are nothing new in Bangladesh, but they never delved into the commercial side of the book business.

Rokomari creates leaderboards to display the bestselling books and authors across several categories and hands out the bestseller awards in those categories at the end of every 12-month circle. 

This initiative has been turning heads every year, "through which not only bestselling writers are getting recognition, but a great number of people are also learning their names for the first time and becoming interested in reading their works," said Sadi.  

Syed Mohammad Rezwan, the owner of Bangladesh's first Facebook-based bookshop Book Street, also gives credit to promotional campaigns for Rokomari's success. "I still remember the rigorous campaigns Rokomari ran throughout the country in its initial days. Still, it continues to do so. Certainly, it has got huge investments in this regard, and that has paid off quite well.

"Now, against every one person who knows the name of Book Street or any other F-commerce, you will find 99 persons who know of Rokomari," he said.

Other key bookshops in the market 

Apart from Rokomari, several other online bookshops made a name among readers, including Prothoma, PBS, Pathak Shamabesh and Baatighar. And like Rokomari, these bookshops also import books from outside the country on customer demand, as well as deliver Bangladeshi books worldwide. 

Of them, Prothoma has 35,000, PBS has 50,000, and Baatighar has 80,000 titles enlisted on their respective websites. Though Pathak Shamabesh has around 15,000 titles on its website, it has more than 60,000 titles on its mobile app.

Having such a huge library is one of the key reasons why people nowadays prefer online bookshops to offline outlets, according to Faruk Mia, Online Business Manager of PBS.

"Given people's busy work schedule combined with the heavy traffic, it is not possible for city dwellers to pay frequent visits to one bookshop from another. But on our website, they can find all their desired books in one place and order them with a few clicks," he said, adding that PBS now sells nearly 50,000 copies of books every month.

Meanwhile, Baatighar's Assistant Manager (Digital Strategy) Alimuzzaman Nayan believes the positive contribution of their offline shops to the ever-growing traffic on their website. 

Baatighar currently has three physical outlets inside Dhaka and three more in Sylhet, Chattogram and Rajshahi.

"Across our offline and online shops, we cater to at least 20,000 unique customers every month, and the numbers are always on the rise. No matter whether readers buy offline or online, they know Baatighar is the ultimate place to find quality books of all genres. 

So, we mostly have repeat customers. Maybe some of them bought from our outlets first, but then opted for online owing to their convenience," Nayan said.

Pathak Shamabesh's Chief Operation Officer (COO) Palash Das believes that the major bookshops have established themselves as such trustworthy destinations that buyers are no more afraid to place orders with them.

"Creating a brand is the key. Over the years, Pathak Shamabesh has done that. So, even if there are doubts and confusion about some e-commerces today, our loyal customers will not go away," Palash said, revealing that Pathak Shamabesh receives around 40 orders daily on average.

And according to Raihan, Prothoma's online section delivers around 300 books for around 50 orders every day.

Barring these four, there are some other leading website-based bookshops such as BoiBazar, Durbiin, Wafilife, BoiFerry etc. 

Why Facebook-based bookshops are lagging behind

It is more convenient to order books from a popular social media platform like Facebook than from other individual websites where users also need to sign up or open their own accounts. Besides, some Facebook-based bookshops offer huge discounts of up to 50%.

Despite all these perks, book-centric F-commerces had not been able to hold a candle to website-based bookshops, let alone Rokomari. 

"It's a question of trust. Given the Bangladeshi context, it's difficult to put faith in Facebook pages and place orders with them," said Rezwan, who launched his bookshop Book Street in 2014 as Bangladesh's Facebook-based bookshop, and in the last nine years, it has turned out to be the most popular book-centric F-commerce in the country. 

In February (the month of the book fair), Book Street's sales can skyrocket to Tk20-22 lakh, while in other months, sales can drop to even Tk6-7 lakh.

But the situation is not that good for most other bookshops. During the pandemic, there was the advent of many new bookshops, which started to sell books at attractive discount rates. But most of them failed to establish themselves in the market, in spite of such lucrative offers. 

According to Zakir Hossain, founder of the Facebook-based bookshop Bibidh, selling books at huge discount rates is never a sustainable business plan, and such businesses are bound to falter.

"Providing huge discount rates is possible only when one is doing business alone, without any formal set-up. But once you plan to expand, you must have a formal space and a few staff members. Then the cost will go up, and you cannot help keep the price down," reflected Zakir.

Another big problem is the lack of professionalism, believes Rezwan. While heavyweight bookshops like Rokomari or PBS try to maintain a certain level of professionalism from the beginning till the end, Facebook-based bookshops never give much thought to it. "If F-commerce, on the whole, is to succeed in the long run, bringing in that professionalism is a must," commented Rezwan. 

With the website-based bookshops showing no sign of slowing down, it does not look like the Facebook-only shops can catch up anytime soon. Still, these bookshops will continue to live on and contribute to the progress of the country's overall literary scene, said Md Mahmudul Hossain Ferdhaus, owner of Porua Bookshop.

According to him, Facebook-based bookshops are mostly popular among the youth, who are students and do not have much money. They can buy books from Facebook pages at a slightly cheaper rate. 

Photo: Collected

Besides, books of the thriller genre sell more on Facebook while these bookshops also play a big role in promoting up-and-coming writers who are initially overlooked by the big shops. 

"We sell books of many new writers as well as promote them, who would otherwise be left unnoticed. So, book lists of the big websites could be made up of all the prominent and popular writers, but for the next generation, Facebook-based bookshops are the best way out," said Ferdhaus. 

End of physical bookshops?

With the emergence of online bookshops and the decline of physical bookshops – especially in the mofussil areas – in the last decade, questions loom large about whether we are going to see the end of physical bookshops. 

But the major stakeholders of the online book market think otherwise. According to them, there will still be room for physical bookshops at least in the big cities.

Rokomari, in spite of being an online bookshop giant, might open physical outlets in near future, 
in the name of Rokomari Experience Center. "Rokomari is always eager to provide its customers with new experiences. So, you never know what we could do next!" said Rokomari's Sadi.  

PBS, Prothoma, Pathak Samabesh and Baatighar too have multiple physical outlets while there are also noteworthy physical bookshops like Bengal Boi and Nirbachito. "In the coming years, we will probably see more new bookshops being operated in the physical world," said Prothoma's Rasel.

"In line with every other business, books are also being sold online. But that doesn't mean physical bookshops will go extinct. Their appeal will remain forever, because physical bookshops can offer an all-embracing experience that online bookshops could never match," concluded Rasel.